Monday, January 13, 2014

Can I be Your Hero?

Being a
professional in the law enforcement industry for over fifteen years, I’m often
asked how my two worlds—that of a romance author and one of a criminal
investigator—together. Working around alpha-bearing, macho federal agents,
investigators, and police officers, I also get another type of response when
they learn just what I write, followed by the no longer surprising, “Can you
write a story with me as your hero?”

A few years
ago, I had to balk at this question.
Now? I just laugh and agree. Because the truth is, nearly every one of my
heroes are based on some sorta alphy, edgy, law enforcement individual. If I’m not dabbling in the world of kick-ass
heroes who want to conquer the latest round of crime, I digging into my former
life as a military member, and bringing those guys into their honorable roles.

Creating a
detective, federal agent, police officer, investigator, or military member
isn’t something entirely too difficult, but capturing a believable persona of
those individuals is something the author must know.

With any
one of the above, it’s all about the details. These men and every law
enforcement/military member that I’ve encountered have one thing in
common. It’s not the need to fight
crime, nor is it the need to go blow “shit” up. It’s about everything they see,
things they notice, details they take in that go far beyond any other regular
person.

Cops and
military members are trained to notice everything going on around them. They
see the threat before others see it, they notice someone who has walked into a
restaurant that may be looking a little nervous, they can see the shift in
someone’s mood just from a simple question, and capturing those details have
been ingrained into their minds through their training not once, not twice, but
over and over again. It’s a routine part of these individuals’ lives. They
train monthly, sometimes weekly in order to have it simply be a part of their
regular everyday actions. These are the guys (or gals) who will react in a
dangerous situation before even realizing they’ve moved.

In Armed and Desired, both Nate and Alyssa are cops, and the details they pick up on
bring their desire for one another just one step higher. When I was writing this story I had a blast
discovering just how far I could push them, and more so, just how much I could
draw on their details they noticed, in order to bring the tension between them
to a full spark of undeniable need.

Excerpt:

Nate waited at the floor-to-ceiling
window of the hotel room and stared out across downtown San Diego. Tall
skyscrapers soared around the city, their tops dusted with popping colors of
green, blue, and red. Cars passed by in a blur, and with dusk only minutes past
and the weekend kicking off, nightlife began to bloom along with his own
anticipation.

He tucked his hands inside the charcoal
dress pants and rocked back and forth in the uncomfortable black dress shoes.
After spending days in his boots and uniform, the toes of the shoes pinched at
his toes, and the soles unforgiving. He did not miss them. At all.

The door behind him clicked and a brush
of air alerted him someone entered the room. He stilled, his heartbeat kicking
out an erratic tempo in his throat, but he didn’t turn, instead watching a
woman cross the threshold in the window’s reflection. She assessed the
larger-than-normal hotel suite before her gaze settled on his back.

Perplexed, he tipped his head,
recognizing her familiar features. She progressed with a lethal grace only a
trained law enforcement officer would know, her steps purposeful, but silent,
even in heels higher than he’d ever seen her in.

Standing to the side, she set her purse
and a small black bag on a table, giving him her profile. A flash of deep red
hair grabbed his attention. He sucked in a breath and pivoted in slow motion,
refusing to allow hope to grow any more than it had, yet at the same time, fear
sliced through. The one person he needed to get out of his system stood in the
same room as he.

The night was about to go to hell.

Facing away from him, she took in the overwhelming
luxury of the room. Desire slammed into him, he came to life with a kick
against his fly.

About DC: D.C.
Stone is an e-book author and full-time fraud investigator when she isn’t
diving into the world of Fiction.

She lives
in the northeast with her incredibly supporting husband, two kids, and while she’ll
deny any association with the grumpy cat, he is there never-the-less.

After
serving eight years of service with the United States Air Force, she went on to
transition into the world of Financial Crimes and became a lead investigator
for many years.

Reading has
always been a passion of hers, getting lost in a good, steamy romance one of
her favorite past times. That passion took a back seat as soon as she
discovered her own love for writing and recreating her own stories and
characters.

Now, when
she isn’t trying to solve a new puzzle in the world of fraud, she is engulfed
with coffee, her laptop, and all those crazy characters in her head. Trying to
keep up with that crazy bunch is a
skill many would yearn to have.

She is a
member of the Romance Writers of America, New Jersey Romance Writers, Kiss of
Death, and the Liberty State Fiction Writers. Come stop by on Facebook, Twitter
or her website and say hello!